Cherry Clafoutis

Cherry Clafoutis.  Cherries in a dish with a thin, pancake type batter, poured over top.  Baked into a creamy, custard like treat.  Simple and delicious.

The kids said it tasted like bread pudding with cherries.

The original clafoutis originated in the Limousin region of France and traditionally used black cherries, complete with the pits.  It would seem that the cherry pits lent an almond like flavour to the baked clafoutis.  I ditched the pits and used almond extract instead.

I can imagine making this with blueberries.  The batter is simple and versatile, and would likely work well with almost any kind of fruit.

Cherry Clafoutis

2 cups cherries, pitted

3 large eggs

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup granulated sugar + 3 tbsp sugar

1 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp almond extract

Pinch of sea salt

Preheat oven to 375°F.  Arrange cherries in the bottom of a buttered 1.5L casserole dish.

Whisk together remaining ingredients, except for the 3 tbsp of sugar, to form a thin batter.  Pour over cherries and sprinkle remaining sugar on the surface.  Bake until the custard is just set, about 45 minutes.

Best served while still warm.  Refrigerate any leftovers.  But there won't be leftovers :)

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Chocolate Upside Down Cake

We don't usually do dessert, unless it's a special occasion, or we have guests for dinner.

So Chocolate Upside Down Cake on Sunday was a big deal.  The kids decided we needed cake after dinner, and I couldn't come up with a good reason why not.

This cake is messy business.  The cake layer bakes on top of a molten, chocolatey, pudding-like sauce.

It's a quick and easy cake to put together.  Waiting on the one hour bake time was the hardest part.  I think I last made this cake about 10 years ago, from a recipe card written out long ago by my teenaged self.

As with many things I make for this crew, I could have easily made twice the amount.  This cake lasted about 3 minutes.

Chocolate Upside Down Cake

Bottom layer:

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 tbsp cocoa

1 1/4 cups flour

1/2 cup milk

2 tbsp butter

1 tsp vanilla

Mix dry ingredients.  Add wet ingredients and combine.  Press into lightly greased 8x8 pan.  I used a 9" round cake pan.

Top layer:

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 tbsp cocoa

Sift together and sprinkle evenly over bottom layer.

Just before baking, pour 2 cups boiling water over cake.  Bake at 350°F for one hour.  

Lining the bottom of your oven with foil is a good idea.  Things might get messy in there.

Serve warm.  Vanilla ice cream would go well with this!

Need more chocolate?

 

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Gingerbread Biscotti

As promised, the recipe for the Gingerbread Biscotti that was part of our Thanksgiving dessert collection.

Our oldest son's girlfriend made a beautiful batch of this biscotti.  The gingerbread flavour is just right, the texture is perfect, and the white chocolate puts these over the top.

Twice baking the biscotti gives them a crunchy texture, perfect for dunking in a cup of coffee.

They are not overly sweet, and there's just enough heat from the ginger.  They really were amazing!

If you've never made biscotti before, and if you like gingerbread, this is a great recipe to try.

Gingerbread Biscotti

Makes 4 dozen

Ingredients

1/3 cup butter, room temperature

1 cup white sugar

3 eggs

1/4 cup molasses

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1 1/2 tbsp ground ginger

3/4 tbsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tbsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1 cup white chocolate chips

1 tbsp coconut oil or vegetable shortening

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375° F (190° C). Grease a cookie sheet.

In a large bowl, mix together butter, sugar, eggs, and molasses. In another bowl, combine flours, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg; mix into egg mixture to form a stiff dough.

Divide dough in half, and shape each half into a roll the length of a cookie sheet. Place rolls on cookie sheet, and pat down to flatten the dough to 1/2 inch thickness.

Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes. Remove from oven, and set aside to cool.

When cool enough to touch, cut into 1/2 inch thick diagonal slices. Place sliced biscotti on cookie sheet, and bake an additional 5 to 7 minutes on each side, or until toasted and crispy.

Remove from oven, and set aside to cool. 

Prepare white chocolate for dipping by melting together chips and oil over low heat until smooth.  Here’s a step by step tutorial for melting chocolate.

Dip one half of each biscotti in melted chocolate and allow to harden before serving.

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Sticky Toffee Pudding

Best dessert ever.  We're talking not a crumb left, lick your plate delicious.  Sticky Toffee Pudding.

My oldest son and his girlfriend gave me a beautiful cookbook for my birthday, Dessert of the Day from Williams Sonoma.  I'm thinking it was a not-so-subtle attempt at suggesting that I make more desserts.  We don't typically do dessert after dinner, unless it's a special occasion, or we have company for dinner.  This is a beautiful book, and it didn't take long for post-it tags to appear on pages as we all found desserts that we wanted to try.

Sticky Toffee Pudding has always been a family favourite.  I actually shared another recipe for this decadent dessert a few years ago, it was one of the first recipes I posted.  

If they can find it on a restaurant menu, Sticky Toffee Pudding is something the kids almost always order for dessert.  It just made sense to try making it at home, and I was surprised to learn that it's not a complicated recipe at all.  The star of show here is dates.  They give the pudding (which is really just a dense, moist cake) it's distinctive sweet flavour and texture.  And toffee sauce, lots of it :)

Chopped dates soaked in boiling water with baking soda make up the a large part of the batter.

The home made toffee sauce pushes this dessert over the top.  

And the half hour spent stirring counts as time spent at the gym.  I think I may have miscalculated the amount of butter or cream I used because it took forever to thicken.  However long it takes, don't stop stirring.

The end result was well worth it.  This is a very sweet and incredibly tasty dessert, best served warm.  

Sticky Toffee Pudding

From Williams Sonoma Dessert of the Day Cookbook

Ingredients

1/2 cup pitted and finely chopped dates

3/4 tsp baking soda

3/4 cup boiling water

1/4 cup butter, room temperature

3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

2 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup all purpose flour

1 1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Toffee Sauce

1/4 cup butter

3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

3/4 cup heavy cream

2 tsp vanilla extract

pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Butter and flour eight 1/2 cup custard cups or individual baking pans and place on baking sheet.

In small bowl, combine the dates and baking soda with the boiling water.  Let stand until cool, about 10 minutes.  Mash the dates to break them down further.  With a mixer, beat sugar and butter together on medium speed until light and creamy.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla.  Add the flour, baking soda, and salt, and stir to combine.  Add the date mixture and stir well.  The batter will be thin.  Fill the custard cups about 2/3 full.

Bake until the puddings are puffed and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean, about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the toffee sauce.  In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.  Add the brown sugar and cream.  Whisk until the sauce thickens, 5-10 minutes.  Stir in the vanilla and salt.

To serve, unmold each warm pudding onto a plate and top with the toffee sauce.

Serves 8.

 

  

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Coconut Banana Chia Chocolate Snack Cake

Earlier this week we celebrated a birthday, shamrock style.  We wrapped it all up with this wonderful coconut banana chocolate chip snack cake, as requested by the birthday girl.  It's an easy, no fuss snack cake, packed with flavour, 

Coconut Banana Chia Chocolate Snack Cake

3 ripe bananas, mashed

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

2 tbsp chia seeds

2 cups brown sugar

2 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup coconut oil 

1/4 cup milk (dairy, almond, soy, rice...whatever!)

1 1/2 cups flour

3/4 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 cup chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate chips, semi-sweet would be good too)

3/4 cup shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Line a 9 x 13 baking pan with parchment paper.

Cream together the mashed bananas, eggs, chia seeds, brown sugar, milk, vanilla, and coconut oil.  Make sure the coconut oil is well distributed, small lumps are OK.  Let the wet ingredients sit for 10 min to allow the chia seeds to absorb some of the moisture.

In a separate bowl, sift together flour, salt, and baking powder.  Whisk dry ingredients into wet ingredients until combined.  

Stir in chocolate chips and coconut until evenly distributed.  Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 30-45 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.  Allow to cool in pan before slicing.

Oh, and a little something to honour the first day of Spring.  I'm so crafty.

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